Return to Krondor Walkthrough

Welcome to my Return to Krondor walk-through. (-: If you're new to my series of low-spoiler computer game walkthroughs, the idea is to point players
towards things they might not have thought of in each game rather than giving away puzzle solutions or offering step-by-step instructions. There's not much
point to playing a game whose main strength is its plot if you've had the plot spoiled in advance, after all.

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So these pages are as close to spoiler-free as possible.
If you are looking for a more explicit walkthrough including spoilers, you can try
this one. My website here focuses on exactly the
things traditional walkthroughs don't: the non-critical parts of the game, little detours you can take, extra details you might miss if you only
did what was strictly necessary to win the game. If you want even fewer spoilers--you're considering whether or not to buy the game, for example, and just want
to know whether there's anything you're going to hate in it--please try my
Return to Krondor Review page to find all the pertinent information in one
convenient spoiler-free package.

Return to Krondor's main plot is completely linear and it's basically impossible to complete the game without finishing each step in order;
still, though, there are many optional subplots, quests with multiple solutions, and details it's possible to miss in this game, and I'll try to list them
all here. RtK is divided into 10 chapters and a prologue, but which chapter you're in gives you absolutely no information about where you are in the
game--some chapters consist of nothing but one short combat or some cutscenes, while others are extended plot sequences with multiple quests
and opportunities for side explorations.

Prelude: Beginnings

It's possible to complete this prologue in a matter of minutes, simply by collecting Jazhara immediately, ignoring the street urchin,
clicking on the palace gates and turning in for the night. But there's plenty to do here, including two quests that will not be available
once the plot begins in Chapter 1, so you might as well explore Krondor as long as you're here! Optional elements in the Prelude include:

1) Both before and after Jazhara joins the party, you have the option of entering any door with a "hand" hotspot on it; usually these
buildings contain a fight, a treasure chest, or both. This is a good way to gain levels and find valuable loot. (It's all quite legal, as the manual
goes out of its way to inform you--James and Jazhara work for the Prince and are allowed to kick in any doors they please, so you won't
suffer any negative consequences for it.) You can't rest in this chapter, but the temple in the North Gate sector is open all night and offers
inexpensive healing, and the shops in the Palace, Sea Gate, and Ye Bitten Dog districts are open for selling and identifying loot and buying
potions and the like. If you find any magical two-handed swords, warhammers, chainmail, or plate mail armor that impresses you along the way,
hang onto it, because more companions who can use these objects will eventually be added to your party.

2) There are two encounters that you can only discover when James is alone (before he has picked up Jazhara.) One is a simple encounter
with two men in the North Gate area (down a side street, before reaching Jazhara.) The other is an encounter with a woman on a balcony in the
Ye Bitten Dog district, and this exchange will trigger a quest, The Whisperer's Amulet.
Don't neglect to go back to the balcony area again once you've received the amulet.

3) Once Jazhara has joined the party, returning to the Palace sector will give you a tip-off to another optional quest,
Sweatshop, which can proceed in more than one way depending
on the choices you make.

After you've had enough looting and pillaging for one night, return to the palace to begin the next chapter.

Chapter 1: Loss

The first part of this chapter is linear with no options or alternatives to explore, until you have finished liberating the jail.

1) Then the smarmy scribe will present you with an optional quest, Sullen Michael,
which has more than one possible solution.

3) On your way to the Ye Bitten Dog there's a man in shadows up on the balcony, who disappears if you click on him. I have no idea who that's
supposed to be--he never plays any role in the game again, and is probably just a cameo from one of the books.

4) Inside the Ye Bitten Dog, it's possible to have conversations with the Nighthawks in purple pantaloons and/or the dockworkers over by the fire.
The dockworkers are more talkative than the Nighthawks, and it's possible for you to provoke them to fight you if you try hard enough. You can also
pay the bartender to reveal various tidbits of information, though none of it is essential to your quest (his clumsy attempt to flirt lecherously with
Jazhara is amusing, at least.)

5) It is again possible to wander around town kicking in doors, fighting random gang members, and amassing loot. Enemies encountered will be
somewhat stronger in this chapter than the last, so this is a good way to level all your characters up a little.

Once you search Knute's room the chapter will end. You can save yourself some time later by selling off any heavy loot before going up there,
but if you don't happen to do this, don't worry about it--you will still have access to the stores of Krondor in the next chapter and no one will
be leaving or joining your party. Just make sure you've done all of the subquests and optional conversations you may want to from
this chapter before beginning the next.

Chapter 2: Descent

It is actually possible to do an about-face and go back up to the Rainbow Parrot from your starting point, so if you need anything
from town, or want to sell off some loot, you can do that any time you feel like backtracking. To the best of my knowledge, though,
there are no subplots nor anything else of any note available to do in town during this chapter.

The only place you actually have to go in the sewers is the Mocker tunnel, which is one of the tunnels branching off from the
large circular room. Getting past the Mocker at the end of this tunnel is necessary to the plot, but you don't actually need to accept the
Sewer Thing quest he offers you--it's possible to simply kill him
and his cohorts (though the quest is more rewarding both in experience points and plotwise.) There is also one unavoidable combat
in that circular room--be sure to search all your combatants carefully, as one carries an interesting letter.

But there are plenty of optional things to see and do in this dungeon while you're in here. In no particular order:

1) There are groups of bodies lying on the floor in two different locations in these sewers; you can examine them for interesting
comments from the party.

2) There's a group of Mockers you can meet patrolling the halls; you can either fight them or chat with them (the latter is more
interesting.)

3) There are two other groups of treasure hunters you can run into down here; your conversations with them can go in several
directions and may end in violence.

4) At the end of a brick-lined corridor with chains hanging from its walls, there is a broken grate with interesting information if you click on
it. You can click on it a second time for some editorializing by William.

5) And there are monsters to kill if you need some more experience--if you just keep going by the area where you last fought with one of them,
another will respawn there before long.

In any event, once you get past the Mocker (either by killing him or completing his quest) make sure William is equipped with whatever
you want him to be wearing for the rest of the game and is not carrying any treasure, because he will be splitting off from the main party
in the morning and will never rejoin them. In fact, he won't be doing anything but combat for the rest of the game, so it is a waste of party
resources and William's weight allowance to let him end this chapter carrying anything besides armor, a sword, and a few potions or
combat-relevant magic items.

Chapter 3: Murder

The investigation of the murder in the title of the chapter is part of the main plot and is not optional (though it is very well-written.) It's
impossible to miss that quest or its inevitable resolution, but it is possible to skip two interesting side pieces:

1) If you case the alley near the Wreckers' Guild at night, you will get an interesting encounter with the sailor, Old Tom, who was mentioned
by the first guildsman you talked to.

You can also continue to wander the city kicking in doors and fighting random ne'er-do-wells to increase your levels.
But whatever else you do, before you bring the final proof of who committed the murder to the journeyman's hiding place, MANAGE YOUR
INVENTORY. You will never be returning to Krondor again once this chapter ends, so sell off everything you don't need, buy any
secret scrolls or books you may have missed, stock up on spellcasting potions, and make sure everyone's coins have been converted
into diamonds before leaving.

Chapter 4: Mercenaries

This chapter consists of one combat and one conversation, and unfortunately, nothing you do in either of them makes the least bit of
difference. Don't bother trying to keep William's soldier friends from dying; they'll all pop up at the end of the combat anyway,
and besides, only a pre-set number of them will accompany him to his next chapter. Whether William decides to keep a prisoner alive or
not affects the opening sequence of Chapter Six, but not its content. This chapter and 6 are really just busywork for William.

Chapter 5: Journey

It's possible to skim through this chapter REALLY fast by making a beeline for Widow's Peak. Everything else on
this map is optional. But really, why would you want to play a CRPG if you didn't want to explore obscure corners of an overland map and
help farmers solve their problems? Optional things in Chapter 5:

1) Visiting every location on the map is worthwhile in general--there are interesting and fun mini-encounters in a few of them (including some
mysterious dead bodies to examine, a family walking through the woods that you can have an amusing conversation with, a troll cave,
a fearsome monster, some Izmali assassins, and some encounters related to the two quests mentioned below.)

2) Visiting the Wayfarer Inn, the quest you are assigned at the
beginning of the chapter, is actually completely optional and not important at all, but it is rather interesting.

3) Towards the north of the map is another optional quest, Save The Babies.
You can get this quest either from the man standing outside the farm, Toth, or from the sheriff at the scene of a nearby goblin battle.

4) The other map squares
sometimes have random combats in them, which are very helpful in raising the levels of your two new recruits. Like the
houses in Krondor, the wilderness squares respawn very quickly, so just stepping back and forth between two spots is likely to result in new
encounters on a fairly regular basis.
Just make sure that you don't load yourself down with useless items during this chapter--you really aren't going to be needing or using
money for the second half of this game, so except for the expensive Izmali daggers you'll find just before reaching Widow's Peak, there is
no need to pick up any coins or any objects you aren't actually going to use. I took all the magic weapons and armor from Arutha's armory
before setting off and fought a losing battle with my inventory weight this entire chapter because I didn't know that; it was
quite a letdown to learn it was all in vain.

Chapter 6: Ambush

William gets another simple combat sequence here. If he killed the mercenary leader in Chapter 6, Bear will ambush him, and if he spared the
mercenary, he will ambush Bear, but aside from a different introductory conversation, this does not make any difference to the fight, and in fact,
the fight is shorter and easier if William is ambushed, because for some reason he only has two soldiers with him if he's doing the ambushing
and four if he's being the ambushee.

It's all moot anyway, because it's irrelevant how well or how poorly the soldiers fare in this fight, and Bear can't be harmed, so all you can
do here is slay his henchmen and spar with Bear until the cutscene that ends the chapter decides to happen.

Chapter 7: Revelation

This is probably the coolest chapter, with a simple but sinister plot,
Small Town Evil,
that can unfold in more than one way and has two possible endings. There are several optional encounters and interesting
conversations you can have around town; I'll break them down for you by area:

1) In the first area you enter, labeled "Crossroads" on the map, you can converse with Mayor Edmund both inside and outside his inn.
Later in the game you will also be able to talk to Farmer Alton (who you met briefly in the cutscene) and to a grieving mother standing
outside a house down the road from the inn.

2) If you sleep at the inn, you will have a nighttime encounter. (This will happen regardless of whether or not you've explored around
town first.)

3) At the house north of the Crossroads on the map (which will be labeled "Witch's House" once you've visited it,) you can talk to a
young girl outside the house and the witch herself inside it. If you visit the witch's house early enough in the
chapter, you may get an encounter with goblins enroute.

4) At the house southeast of the Crossroads on the map (which will be labeled "Pulpit" once you've visited it,) you can talk to the priest and his
followers.

5) At the big cluster of houses still further on the map (which will be labeled "Shop Sector" once you've visited it,) only one shop, the General
Store, is currently open. You can sell extra loot here, but by this point in the game, you might as well just leave anything you don't want lying
on the ground, because you'll never get another chance to use money anyway (the financial aspects of this game are not very well-planned-out.)
You can also converse with Ward the shopkeeper and--this is easy to miss--click on his shelves for more comments by him. There is also a
boarded-up house next door and you can attempt to communicate with its owner, Nathan. The other two houses in this area, a blacksmith's shop
and the home of Merrick the blacksmith, will become useful later in the plot.

6) If you approach Nathan's house at night, you will get an encounter and an extended conversation that you cannot have during the day.

7) The house south of the farm on the map is the graveyard, which will be labeled as such once you've visited it. Until later in the plot, the
large tomb will be sealed during daylight hours. The tombstones, besides sporting the usual easter-eggery, contain one interesting
gravestone with a rose lying against it that is worth a look.

8) Just like in any other CRPG, returning to the graveyard after dark results in a fight with undead creatures. You can repeat this as often as
you like, if you're trying to get someone's level up.

9) The last house, west from the shops on the map, is the woodcutter's shack, important for plot purposes.

10) And the rocky crag way off to the northwest on the map does light up when you mouse over it and can in fact be visited, but it's a lot
of boring walking and there's nothing there at all until chapter 9, so it's best to ignore that for now.

11) Finally, some of the NPCs on this map have new conversations with you once you've destroyed the various menaces threatening
their town. Edmund, Nathan, and Ward have new reactions once you've destroyed the undead; Edmund, Merrick and his wife,
and Ward have new reactions once you've helped the sick girl; and Edmund, Merrick and his wife, Ward, and the witch all
have new reactions once you've destroyed the source of the evil magic.

Chapter 8: Nightmare

Another simple combat with William, but this one starts with a wicked cool cutscene (you gotta have the sound on for this) and
has an interesting conversation at the end. Though William appears to get a choice at the end of this chapter (trusting Sidi or not,) in fact,
what he chooses will have no bearing on how Chapter 10 proceeds.

Chapter 9: Ruin

It is possible to use the map to head back to town during this chapter, but there is little to do there. The mayor, the witch, the grieving mother on
the far side of the mayor's house, and Nathan in the shops district all have new comments to make.
But most of what goes on in this chapter will take place in the cave beneath Widow's Point. Things of note in there:

1) In the entry chamber, it is possible to examine the red-garbed skeletons for a few interesting comments. As you solve the puzzle on the door,
they will attack you two at a time every time you make a mistake, which is an annoying disruption to an otherwise excellent puzzle. If you should
find yourself stumped, one possible solution to the puzzle is thoughtfully hidden in the alcove behind the last skeleton.

2) In the chamber with the long pool, after you've fought the tentacles, you can examine the pool for some pertinent remarks. In fact, James
is correct: there IS something you can do to pass safely through this room the way the goblins do. It's rather moot, since you wouldn't
normally be passing this way again, but if you do, you'll get a little XP bonus for figuring it out.

3) There are three rooms to explore in this section of the dungeon: a throne room, a cell room, and a large goblin barracks. There are
set combats in each of these locations, as well as one in the hall. It is possible to help the prisoners in the cell room.

4) As you pass through to a new section of the dungeon, just after a fight with two ghouls, the Map function will become accessible again.
You will see that there are six areas of the dungeon you can travel to by map, including the one you are standing in now (called "Entryway.")
Each of the other areas contains a door which will lead you to a new room. If you can't find the door easily, it's probably because you've gotten
turned around due to fighting a combat upon entering the area. Try opening the map and clicking on the area again, and you should find yourself
facing the door.

The only one of these rooms you NEED to enter is the area in the lower left-hand corner, called the Hall of Skeletons. I tell you this because exploring
that area fully will trigger the chapter-ending combat (though you're offered the choice to sacrifice one of your teammates instead, even if
you try to take it, James realizes the villain isn't going to keep his word and attacks anyway.) Return to Krondor is already a rather short game,
and you really don't want to make it any shorter by accidentally skipping nifty dungeon rooms: so go to all the other dungeon areas
FIRST, and the Hall of Skeletons LAST.

5) In the Corpse Storage Room, in the lower right-hand corner of the map, it IS possible to help the monster (as opposed to just killing it,) but you'll have to visit
one of the other rooms first.

6) In the Hall of Statues, in the upper right-hand corner of the map, besides combat and treasure, Solon should encounter a ghost who gives him a wand to destroy
evil artifacts with. You do not actually need this wand to destroy the evil artifact at the end of the chapter. However, there is another evil artifact somewhere
in this dungeon that you can destroy with the wand for experience points. Just go into your inventory, select the wand, and hit the "use" button while you're
standing in the proper room.

7) The Tomb, in the bottom center of the map, is locked with a combination lock. Any means to solve this puzzle is, as far as I can tell, bafflingly absent from the game.
The symbols on the wheels are the same as the symbols on the document the witch gave you, but the correct solution is made up of a sequence of five symbols that
never appears on that document. I found the solution through dumb luck, and still don't know why it's the correct answer. If you rotate each wheel, you'll notice that
one of its sides has a surface that looks different from the others--less rough. I turned them so that all five were on the smoother surface. (Then I tried it and fell into
the pit trap, but you can skip that step.) Anyway, then I turned each wheel one more time and tried again, and hey presto, the door opened. If anyone has a clue why
this was the correct code, drop me an email and let me know. I'm thinking there must have been a scroll with the
combination on it somewhere in this dungeon, but I've scoured the place several times now to no avail. (It's not true that the niche of the last skeleton in the entry
hall contains the solution to this puzzle, incidentally--it only contains a solution to the light-beam puzzle.)

But there's nothing special in this tomb anyway, just a key to a door that James could pick in his sleep with boxing gloves on.

8) The Necromancer's Lab, in the upper left-hand corner of the map, contains several valuable objects and ties up a few loose ends. Save before going in.
Wearing a black pearl necklace into this room results in an interesting effect. I never did figure out what the Book of Necromancy was good for. "Using" it
simply decreases a character's Fire and Storms skills. Maybe it's just supposed to be a cursed artifact.

Once you've explored everything else you want to on this level, heal up and head into the Hall of Skeletons to end the chapter.

Chapter 10: Triumph

This is the final endgame and is completely linear. However, there is one critical error that can be made: when James and his party
confront Bear, do not attack him! It's not clear whether this is a bug or a game design flaw, but if you attack Bear,
Sidi and William will never arrive, and you'll wind up in an endless combat that it's impossible to win. Talk to Bear every time you are offered an
option, until he initiates combat himself. Then the plot will proceed to its normal conclusion.

When the credits are over there will be a quick cutscene foreshadowing future evil, so don't quit the game once they start rolling.
Congratulations, you've won!